The Feuersteinklippe is a rock formation

Rock formation

This is a list of rock formations that include isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrops. These formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock...

 in the Harz National Park

Harz National Park

The Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises large portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg on the northern slopes...

 in central Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and the landmark

Landmark

This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...

 of the nearby village of Schierke

Schierke

Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode.Schierke was first mentioned as Schiriken in a 1590 deed...

.

The Feuersteinklippe is a butte

Butte

A butte is a conspicuous isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; it is smaller than mesas, plateaus, and table landform tables. In some regions, such as the north central and northwestern United States, the word is used for any hill...

 made of granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

, not firestone

Firestone

-Harvey Firestone family:*Harvey Samuel Firestone , founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company*Harvey Samuel Firestone, Jr., son of Firestone founder*Elizabeth Parke Firestone, daughter-in-law of Harvey Firestone and mother of Martha Firestone...

 as the name suggests. It shows the woolsack weathering

Weathering

Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soils and minerals as well as artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, biota and waters...

 typical of the Harz region. The striking rock formation is located at a height of 690 metres and is surrounded by woods. It lies to the north of Schierke station

Schierke station

Schierke station is the railway station in the village of Schierke operated by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways on the Brocken Railway in the Harz Mountains of central Germany...

.

The name Feuersteinklippe is derived from the Schierker Feuersteinwiesen (Schierke Feuerstein meadows) that lie to the southeast, which in turn were named after the cultic fires or signal beacons originally lit at this spot.

An information board on the rocks recalls the visit of Goethe and the painter, Georg Melchior Kraus

Georg Melchior Kraus

Georg Melchior Kraus was a German painter. A student of Johann Heinrich Tischbein, he was also a teacher himself , as well as an entrepreneur and friend of Goethe...

, who spent time here on 4 September 1784 in geological studies.

The well-known herbal liqueur, Schierker Feuerstein

Schierker Feuerstein

Schierker Feuerstein is an alcoholic liqueur produced in the town of Schierke, located in the Harz region of Germany. is a herbal liqueur , whose recipe was developed in the 1920s by Willy Drube, the then proprietor of the chemist's, Zum Roten Fingerhut, in the village of Schierke and which was...

, which is made in Schierke, is named after the rocks. The label portrays the rock formation.

Sources

• Gorsemann, Sabine and Kaiser, Christian (2010). Harz, DuMont Reiseverlag Ostfildern, ISBN 978-3-7701-7298-6, p. 151